Newcastle council, SuperCars, its new West End offices and freedom of information requests

On December 12, councillors voted for a 16 per cent pay rise and permanently appointed acting chief executive officer Jeremy Bath.

That week, Mr Bath said he'd signed the building lease and asked the developer to take the five-storey building up a floor.

Then, on December 21, Mr Bath told the Newcastle Herald the word "council" was "outdated" and "tired", triggering the name change to "City of Newcastle".

IN THE NEWS:

All of this came straight after the first Newcastle Supercars event, which, like the new headquarters, has been a long-running controversy for this council.

It's the media's job to shine light on the actions of government, and there were so many questions, so early, about Supercars and the council's move to the West End that that the Herald would have been abrogating its duties had it not investigated both as fully as practicable.

Today, reporter Donna Page details some of the circumstances behind a consultant's report that found a "compelling financial benefit" in the move.

The council opposed releasing the information we sought.

That is their prerogative and some of it - redacted with the permission of the Information and Privacy Commission - may have been commercially sensitive.

But in previous requests appealed by the Herald, the council has been found by the commission to have "unjustly" withheld information.

A general reluctance to release information was highlighted last month when the commission published a 10-year study on the operation of the Government Information (Public Access) Act.

In 2011, 90 per cent of documents sought from councils were fully or partly released.

By last year it was down to 77 per cent. Full access fell from 80 per cent to 50 per cent.

RELATED READING: Your Right To Know file

Councils spend public money and ratepayers are entitled to know where and how it is spent.

Newcastle council statements show it raising $326 million last year, including $184 million from ratepayers.

The Independent councillors insist the financial statements they receive lack important detail.

Council management repeatedly block GIPA requests by community groups and the media,

Together, this does little to instil public confidence,

Indeed, it can only tend to strengthen perceptions that there is something to hide.

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